Echo - dzieje gatunku w literaturze staropolskiej

Echo is the genre of the Old Polish poetry which appeared in the first decade of the 17th century. Its structure is based on the element commonly used in the literary function: the acoustic phenomenon of repeating the voices resonated from an obstacle. In poems the order of the rhymed elements functioned as this obstacle. Three varieties of this genre have been separated so far, including the one neglected by the scholars. The existence of the variants confirms the fact that echo is a kind of conceptual poetry in which folk element is of the utmost importance and is subortinated to underlining the satirical or critical overtone of the poem. The article deals with all the available in print works, both in Polish and Latin, which belong to this genre. It was noticed that echo had been useful and therefore was often practised in political poetry. The use of this genre was a good method to compromise the opponents as it would indicate their craftiness, bad intentions and immorality. Ath the same time it protected the ideological allies by evoking the readers’ sympathy towards them. It was also a manifestation of baroque poetry with the use of puns and surprising changes of meaning.